Posts Tagged ‘brent assink’

  1. Video: Why Hear It Live?

    In this day and age, what is the importance of the live music experience? (more…)


  2. Video: Technology and Engaged Audiences

    How can orchestras use technology to engage with audiences? (more…)


  3. Podcast: Chapter Nine – Considering Audiences, Part 2

    Confronted with fundamental and ongoing changes in their audiences, orchestras are thinking about what they do and how they do it as never before. In this chapter we explore some of the ideas, innovations, optimism and uneasiness of the American orchestra, as it finds it way toward the audiences of the future.

    This podcast was developed from our May 2012 live forum event and backstage interviews.

    Chapter Nine – Considering Audiences, Part 2

    Play | Download | Transcript

    (more…)


  4. Podcast: Chapter Eight – Considering Audiences, Part 1

    For decades nobody thought very much about them. The audience was who showed up to fill the concert hall, in a largely predictable and reliable way. An orchestra scheduled and performed its subscription concerts, and the patrons came to hear them–a straightforward cause-and-effect relationship. Like many relationships in our times, this one has changed, grown more volatile, and become anything but straightforward. No one, it’s safe to say, is taking the audience for granted now.

    This podcast was developed from our May 2012 live forum event and a behind-the-scenes conversation with The Cleveland Orchestra in April 2012.

    Chapter Eight – Considering Audiences, Part 1

    Play | Download | Transcript

    (more…)


  5. Event video – Talking About Audiences – Roundtable and Audience Q&A

    One last video from our Talking About Audiences event in San Francisco is now available for viewing — the roundtable discussion and audience Q&A. Recorded May 13, 2012.

    Participants include: Mark Clague, associate professor of music, University of Michigan; Matthew VanBesien, Executive Director Designate, New York Philharmonic; Sunil Iyengar, Director of Research & Analysis, National Endowment for the Arts; Elizabeth Scott, Chief Media and Digital Officer, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts – formerly V.P., Major League Baseball Productions; Brent Assink, Executive Director, San Francisco Symphony; and Steven Winn, San Francisco arts journalist and author


  6. Podcast: Chapter Six – The Creative Challenge, Off the Stage

    In a culture that exalts the individual, creativity is thought of first and foremost as the distinctive stamp of a personality, the outpouring of a specific genius or talent. But organizations can and must be creative, too, if they hope to endure and thrive. In the face of financial woes, aging audiences, dwindling arts education and the momentum of an increasingly digital universe, orchestras are challenged as never before to find creative ways of making music and making it matter to their communities.

    This podcast was developed from our public forum in March 2012, Talking About Creativity and a “Conducting Business” podcast by New York radio station WQXR.

    Chapter Six – The Creative Challenge, Off the Stage

    Play | Download | Transcript

    (more…)


  7. LIVE Blog – Talking About Audiences – Event and Webcast

    What follows is a live blog from our Talking About Audiences event in San Francisco on Sunday, May 13.

    Speakers included:

    • Keynote: Alan Gilbert, Music Director, New York Philharmonic in conversation with Matthew VanBesien, Executive Director Designate, New York Philharmonic

    • Spotlight #1: Sunil Iyengar, Director of Research & Analysis, National Endowment for the Arts
    • Spotlight #2: Elizabeth Scott, Chief Media and Digital Officer, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; formerly V.P., Major League Baseball Productions
    • Roundtable: Spotlight speakers in conversation with Brent Assink, Executive Director, San Francisco Symphony; Matthew VanBesien, Executive Director Designate, New York Philharmonic; Mark Clague, associate professor of music, University of Michigan, and Steven Winn, San Francisco arts journalist and author

    Roundtable

    4:33pm Audience member: Orchestral music is a more positive experience than bull-fighting.

    4:30pm Assink: Orchestras have an important role to play in getting rid of the divide between professional and amateur musician. (more…)


  8. Brent Assink: What’s Working and What Must Work

    From audience engagement, music education, and a changing relationship with the community, to technology and the best use of social media… there are a lot of questions in today’s orchestral world and not always a lot of concrete answers.

    Indeed, if you had to narrow it down and list just the top five things orchestras should work to change, what would they be?

    In a recent talk at the University of Michigan’s American Orchestra Summit, Brent Assink, Executive Director of the San Francisco Symphony, took up that challenge in a keynote speech on the theme “What’s Working and What Must Work.” The American Orchestra Summit brought together arts administrators, educators, and musicians with the goal of inspiring “new ideas and new conversations” around such issues as productive collaboration, changing audiences and communities, and the training of the professional musician in the 21st-century.

    Watch the full speech below or read the transcript at SymphonyNOW.


  9. Event video: Talking About Creativity Roundtable and Audience Q&A

    One last video from our Talking About Creativity event in San Francisco is now available for viewing — the roundtable discussion and audience Q&A.

    Read the Talking About Creativity Roundtable transcript (pdf)

    Participants include: Mark Clague, Professor of Music, University of Michigan; Ed Sanders, Group Marketing Manager, Creative Lab at Google; Margo Drakos, cellist and Co-founder, InstantEncore; John Adams, composer; Mason Bates, composer; Brent Assink, Executive Director, San Francisco Symphony; and Steven Winn, San Francisco arts journalist and critic.


  10. Event video: Michael Tilson Thomas and Brent Assink – Talking About Creativity

    Here is the first of our videos from Saturday’s event in San Francisco, our keynote conversation with Michael Tilson Thomas, Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony.

    In this wide-ranging conversation with SFS Executive Director Brent Assink, MTT discusses the connectedness of all artistic endeavors, reflects on his ability to provide “context” for younger musicians, discusses his work with contemporary composers, quotes from Walt Whitman, and much more. Enjoy.